NIL: Saving a life is not a crime

During the conference, a memorandum was presented, which is the starting point for work on a new project. The medical bill is a response to the plans of the health ministry, which intends to include in the quality act the institution of extraordinary mitigation of punishment in the event of reporting a medical error - this solution, experts say, is light years distant from the no-fault system.

The lack of such a system, as emphasized in the discussion (and in the memorandum), has negative consequences. discouraging doctors from working in surgical specialties and choosing by doctors less risky treatment methods with potentially lower effectiveness.

- The discussion about the necessity to introduce the no-fult system has been going on for a long time - reminded Łukasz Jankowski, president of the NRL. - Observing the fate of successive laws trying to improve the quality and safety of treatment, we came to the conclusion that we must take matters into our own hands and firstly present a diagnosis of the current situation and ideas on how to improve this system, and then propose a law.

The president of the medical self-government stated that in the current system, when an undesirable event occurs, there is also a confrontation between the patient and the doctor. - One of the basic shortcomings of the current system is the lack of a registry of adverse events. We need to come up with solutions that would allow the system and doctors to learn from their mistakes. We're not perfect, mistakes happen. The main thing is to draw conclusions from them and this is what the registry of adverse events should be used for. Today, the atmosphere is conducive to punishing doctors, but also sweeping errors and adverse events under the rug - he admitted. Another pillar of the no-fault system should be the introduction of compensation tools for patients in the event of an undesirable event or medical error. The main point is that the patient should not be left alone with his problem. - At the moment, there are as many as seven different institutions in the system that deal with this type of case. Each of them, considering a given case, may come to different conclusions, and the patient is left alone anyway - emphasized President Jankowski.

- I run a dozen or so cases in which I defend doctors or members of the medical staff. There is no such procedure among them that, from the patient's perspective, would lead to a quick resolution. (...) For the development of medicine and improvement of proceedings from the patient's perspective, we should develop a system that would shorten the patient's receipt of compensation - said Przemysław Rosati, president of the Supreme Bar Council.

- The current system is absolutely not patient-centric. It is based on the fact that you have to blame someone, often find a scapegoat, because mistakes often happen as a result of many events. As a result, the patient remains without what is crucial for him for many months, i.e. without repairing the damage that has arisen, assessed Ewelina Nazarko-Ludwiczak from the MY PATIENCI Foundation. She also recalled that as early as 2017, the Foundation postulated the creation of a registry of adverse events and the introduction of a no-fault system as the foundation on which to build a quality culture in health care.